Table 1.

Pre- and peri-pandemic factors examined in relation to pandemic-related post-traumatic growth in U.S. veterans.

Sociodemographic characteristics	Age, gender, race (white vs non-white), education (college graduate or higher vs up to high school diploma), marital status (married/living with partner vs unmarried), income ($60,000 or more vs less than $60,000), employment (working vs retired), and combat status (no combat exposure vs combat)
Background characteristics
Psychological distress	MDD symptoms – participant responses on the two depressive symptoms of the PHQ-4 occurring in the past two weeks (Ω = 0.87); a score ≥3 was indicative of a positive screen for MDD (Kroenke et al., 2009); PTSD symptoms-assessed with the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; a score ≥33 was indicative of a positive screen for PTSD (Weathers et al., 2013a); GAD symptoms – participant responses on the two generalized anxiety items of the PHQ-4 occurring in the past two weeks (a score ≥3 was indicative of a positive screen for GAD (Kroenke et al., 2009).
Cumulative trauma burden	Count of potentially traumatic events on the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5;Weathers et al., 2013b).
Adverse childhood experiences	Score on Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (Felitti et al., 1998).
Number of medical conditions	Sum of number of medical conditions endorsed in response to question: “Has a doctor or healthcare professional ever told you that you have any of the following medical conditions?” (e.g., arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, kidney disease). Range: 0–24 conditions.
Personality traits	Assessed using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI; Gosling et al., 2003), a 10-item self-report brief measure of the “Big Five” personality traits of emotional stability (anxious vs confident and calm), extraversion (outgoing vs reserved), openness to experience (imaginative and inventive vs cautious and routine-like), agreeableness (friendly and cooperative vs detached), and conscientiousness (efficient and organized vs careless).
Engagement in mental health treatment	Positive endorsement of current treatment with psychotropic medication and/or psychotherapy or counseling: “Are you currently taking prescription medication for a psychiatric or emotional problem?” “Are you currently receiving psychotherapy or counseling for a psychiatric or emotional problem?”
Religiosity/spirituality	Score on the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL; Koenig and Bussing, 2010).
Social connectedness
Structural social support	Number of close friends and family members.
Secure attachment	Choose one: a) I am somewhat uncomfortable being close to others; b) I find it relatively easy to get close to others (secure); c) I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like (Hazan and Shaver, 1990)
Emotional/instrumental social support	Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Scale-5; 5 items assessing how often each type of support is available when needed (e.g., “Someone to confide in or talk to about your problems”) on 5-point Likert scale: 1 = none of the time to 5 = all of the time. Higher scores reflect greater perceived social support (Sherbournce and Stewart, 1991).
Protective psychosocial factor
Resilience	Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CDRISC-10); 10 items (e.g., “I am able to adapt when changes occur”) on 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all true to 5 = true nearly all the time; Campbell-Sills and Stein, 2007).
Purpose in life	Score on Purpose in Life Test-Short Form (Schulenberg et al., 2010).
Dispositional optimism	Score on single-item measure of optimism from Life Orientation Test-Revised (Scheier et al., 1994); “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best”; (rating 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
Dispositional gratitude	Score on single-item measure of gratitude from Gratitude Questionnaire (McCullough et al., 2002); “I have so much in life to be thankful for”; (rating 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
Perceived social support	Score on 5-item version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Scale (Sherbournce and Stewart, 1991; Amstadter et al., 2011).
Curiosity/exploration	Score on single-item measure of curiosity/exploration from Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (Kashdan et al., 2009); “I frequently find myself looking for new opportunities to grow as a person (e.g., information, people, resources”); (rating 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
Community integration	Perceived level of community integration: “I feel well integrated in my community (e.g., regularly participate in community activities)”; (rating 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
Change variables (from pre-pandemic to peri-pandemic)	Changes in household income, psychological distress, traumas, and protective psychosocial characteristics
COVID-19 variables (peri-pandemic)	Hours consuming COVID-related media, COVID infection status (self, or household/non-household member), and knowing someone who died of COVID-19 using a questionnaire developed by the National Center for PTSD. COVID-related worries, social restriction stress, and financial stress were assessed based on the Coronavirus Health Impact Survey (NIMH Intramural Research Program, 2020). COVID-related worries (e.g., “In the past month, how worried have you been about being infected with coronavirus?”); COVID-social restriction stress (e.g., “How stressful have these changes in social contacts been for you?”); and COVID-related financial hardship (e.g., “In the past month, to what degree have changes related to the pandemic created financial problems for you or your family?”). COVID-related PTSD symptoms were assessed using the 4-item PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (Geier et al., 2020) (score range = 0–16; sample item: “Thinking about the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, please indicate how much you have been bothered by repeated, disturbing, and unwanted memories of the pandemic”); a score ≥5 is indicative of a positive screen for PTSD. Sum of traumas since baseline were assessed using a total count of past-year potentially traumatic events on the LEC-5 (Weathers et al., 2013b).

DSM-5 = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, GAD = generalized anxiety disorder, LEC=Life Events Checklist, MDD = major depressive disorder, PHQ = patient health questionnaire, PTG = posttraumatic growth, PTSD = posttraumatic stress disorder.